Structural parts of this kind may be used, for example, as supporting structures in motor vehicles, in particular as transverse supporting members in motor vehicles behind the instrument panel. A transverse supporting member of this kind in a motor vehicle serves to procure a connection between the A columns, on which the instrument panel, the air conditioner, the steering wheel-side steering column bearing, the airbag and other subassemblies may be suspended. For this purpose, the transverse supporting member must have high rigidity, so as to be able to resist the forces introduced from the steering column connection through the steering wheel.
Such transverse supporting members are well known from tubular steel constructions. However, these have very high weight, which is disadvantageous for fuel consumption. In further developments, transverse supporting members of a combination of metal and synthetic material have therefore been produced for the reduction of weight. EP 0,370,342 discloses such a transverse supporting member in hybrid construction. The latter has a dish-like basic element of metal, in the interior of which are arranged reinforcing ribs. These reinforcing ribs consist of injected synthetic material and are connected by the basic element to a plurality of apertures.
The object of the present invention is to further develop a structural part, in particular a structural part designed as a transverse supporting member for the connection between the A columns of a motor vehicle, in such a way that it has low weight, high mechanical stability and rigidity and is simple and inexpensive to produce.